K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences

Starting to see the appeal

For a long time now I’ve been rather ambivalent about tiling desktops; I can see how, from a space-efficiency standpoint, it might be attractive to use a tiling window manager. I’ve even tried one or two, but it’s not much of a speed boost over any other X-based desktop in my opinion, so I stick with the conventional ones.

But, as always, just when I think I’ve settled on one opinion or another, someone manages to show me how wrong I can be. This time it’s the amazing dwm setup at sillycommigly, which is all at once svelte, streamlined and beautiful (in my own humble opinion, of course).

You might join me on occasion in singing the “pretty is a feature, ugly is subjective” hymn, but I’ll be first in line to admit that those are some lovely screenshots. And I can understand why it the owner calls it “unproductive:” If it was my desktop, I’d spend all my time drooling over it, and probably not get anything done either. :|

Post navigation

4 thoughts on “Starting to see the appeal”

Coincidentally, it just so happens that I’m also fiddling with tiling WM’s again. After trying out wmii and Awesome2 a while ago on my old laptop, I pretty much left it alone for a while. Like you, I could see some potential, but not enough to replace Openbox on my main computers.

Now though, I’m going to give Awesome3 another chance (again on the old laptop). Especially on older harware, where you’d opt for the terminal solution over the “graphical” one even quicker, it could be an excellent solution.

And of course, it also looks really cool. Or at least can be made to look really cool.

On another note, you’ve got to love the names some of those more excentric WM’s have been given. I mean Ratpoison, Ion, Awesome,… It just all sounds… erm… Great! (Note that I deliberately did not use the Awesome is awesome pun)